Dow Jones: +115 at 12,767
S&P 500: +14 at 1,343
NASDAQ Composite: +36 at 2,873
US Treasury 10-year yield: 1.58%
West Texas intermediate for July delivery: $84.03 a barrel, +12 cents
LONDON (SHARECAST) - The Dow Jones racked up a triple-digit rise for the second day in succession on Friday ensuring that US markets rose for the second week in a row. It has been more than a month since US benchmark indices put together two weeks in a row of gains, and such is the general air of bullishness that even flotation-flop Facebook finished the week higher than it started it.
Buying activity was spurred by a growing belief that policy-makers worldwide are ready to apply stimulus measures if need be to juice the global economy.
Investors shrug off indifferent economic data
The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer confidence index for the month of June came in at 74.1, after 79.3 in May (Consensus: 77.5).
Industrial production contracted by 0.1% month-on-month in June (Consensus: +0.1%) in May, along with a 0.4% fall in manufacturing output.
The New York Fed’s manufacturing sector index fell to 2.29 in June (Consensus: 13), from 17.09.
Net long-term capital flows decreased to $25.6bn in April, after $36bn in the month before.
Bids abound
Software colossus Microsoft is poised to buy business social-networking site for $1.2bn, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Valiant Pharma is to acquire oral health care outfit OraPharma for $426m and telecoms titan Motorola Solutions will buy British mobile computing pioneer Psion for another $200m.
IntercontinentalExchange rose sharply after it lost the bidding battle for the London Metals Exchange to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, the owner of the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Goldman Sachs has started coverage of energy pipeline operator Kinder Morgan at "buy".
In other broker action retailer Family Dollar has been downgraded to "hold" from "overweight" by Barclays Capital, with a price target of $68. The broker looked more kindly on food retailer Kroger, moving to an "overweight" position from "hold".
Atlantic Equities downgraded energy services firm Exelon to "neutral" from "overweight", with a price target of $37.
S&P 500 - Risers
Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW) $8.70 +5.33%
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $50.05 +5.30%
SAIC Inc. (SAI) $12.24 +5.06%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $65.79 +5.00%
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) $134.80 +4.67%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $18.10 +4.44%
Mosaic Company (MOS) $49.70 +4.43%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $80.12 +4.39%
Red Hat Inc. (RHT) $56.49 +4.32%
Harman International Industries Inc. (HAR) $37.23 +4.29%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) $8.93 -2.93%
Rockwell Collins Inc. (COL) $49.07 -2.00%
Supervalu Inc. (SVU) $4.52 -1.95%
Tellabs Inc. (TLAB) $3.29 -1.79%
International Game Technology (IGT) $14.88 -1.59%
Dun & Bradstreet Corp. (DNB) $67.39 -1.32%
Tenet Hlthcre Corp. (THC) $4.61 -1.28%
Safeway Inc. (SWY) $17.97 -1.26%
Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) $34.45 -1.26%
Aetna Inc. (AET) $40.99 -1.23%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $7.90 +3.13%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $104.33 +2.36%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $30.02 +2.32%
American Express Co. (AXP) $56.28 +2.23%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $199.10 +2.05%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $51.87 -0.56%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $62.88 -0.47%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $43.55 -0.46%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $50.05 +5.30%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $10.89 +4.71%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $80.12 +4.39%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $33.37 +4.02%
Nll Holdings Inc. (NIHD) $11.59 +3.95%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $13.95 +3.72%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $36.85 +3.66%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $37.76 +3.37%
Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN) $27.51 +3.34%
Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) $94.47 +3.20%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT) $17.24 -1.77%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $50.39 -1.62%
Warner Chilcott Plc (WCRX) $18.01 -1.10%
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